Potential Discovery of Universe’s first Stars Ignites Excitement Among Astronomers
WASHINGTON – Astronomers believe they may have identified a system containing Population III stars – the universe’s earliest stars, formed shortly after the Big Bang – using data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). The potential discovery, detailed in a paper submitted to The Astrophysical Journal Letters, centers on a compact cluster of massive stars designated LAP1-B.
These Population III stars are theorized to have emerged approximately 200 million years after the Big Bang within small concentrations of dark matter. scientists predict these stars were exceptionally massive and had relatively short lifespans. The LAP1-B system appears to align with these predictions, residing within a dark matter halo roughly 50 million times the mass of the Sun. The stars within the cluster are estimated to range from 10 to 1000 solar masses, forming a compact cluster containing only a few thousand solar masses in total.
Further bolstering the hypothesis, spectral analysis of the surrounding gas reveals almost no metal content, indicating the system is young enough that few supernovae have yet occurred to enrich the gas with heavier elements.
while researchers caution this is not yet definitive proof, citing uncertainties regarding supernova material ejection and cosmological model accuracy, the finding represents a notable step forward. The team anticipates that gravitational lenses,combined with JWST’s advanced capabilities,will facilitate the discovery of additional systems like LAP1-B,potentially revealing more about these primordial stars.
“LAP1-B may only represent the tip of the iceberg in the study of Population III stars,” the researchers conclude.
